Early secondary bone grafting of alveolar cleft defects. A comparison between chin and rib grafts

Since 1981 in cleft lip and palate patients a combined surgical-orthodontic procedure has been performed to eliminate the residual alveolar cleft. For early secondary bone grafting (before the eruption of the canine tooth) initially the graft tissue of choice was rib. Since 1984 chin bone has also been used. Sixty one patients with complete unilateral clefts were reviewed (mean age 9.5 years). 15.7% of the rib graft cases showed resorption of the graft of 50% and more. Such resorption was not found in any of the chin graft cases. No complications such as wound dehiscence, sequestration, excessive resorption of bone or recurrence of an oro-nasal fistula were found in the chin graft group. This leads to the conclusion that if enough bone is available in the chin region to bridge the defect, this graft is preferable to a rib graft.